At the glorious stroke of midnight and the arrival of the month of July, Sam Hinkie fervorously rubbed his hands together and cackled into the quiet night that surrounded PCOM. The NBA calendar had flipped to 2013-2014 and Spencer Hawes and Kwame Brown immediately became “Spencer Hawes’ and Kwame Brown’s expiring contracts.”

While the rest of the League is paying attention to what asinine delicacies and ridiculous riches several teams will offer Dwight Howard over the next several days, Hinkie and the Sixers are going to lurk in the shadows of the NBA’s crazed free-agency period like a vicious lion and wait for the opportune moment to pounce on a stupid team with a bad front office.

We know they still exist in the NBA, despite having a lockout to correct the absurd financial landscape of the entire corporation just two years ago. Yesterday, it became widely reported that the New Orleans Pelicans (aka Jrue’s new team) signed Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans to a four-year/$40-48 million offer sheet.

Yet while all of these bad owners keep tossing their money around to overrated free-agents and hardly stars like Evans, it’s safe to say that Hinkie won’t be one to overpay for a “hot commodity” this summer. He wouldn’t think that offering Kwame Brown a lucrative, long-term contract is a smart idea either.

What can we expect from Hinkie this offseason now that free agency has began? There’s five things stand out in my mind:Continue Reading

At the Philadelphia 76ers’ introductory press conference for new General Manager Sam Hinkie, Managing Owner Josh Harris might as well have said, “I’m da boss,” as well.

During a lovely affair at PCOM, Harris and Hinkie basically announced that the Sixers will be moving in a new direction, and that Josh is the man leading the pack.

At the presser Harris mentioned how similar he and Hinkie are in their philosophies towards building this franchise. Josh also made it clear that Hinkie will “diligently” make roster decisions, take “smart risks”, add a “championship-caliber coach” and be “aggressive and push (his) chips into the middle.”

Even further evidence that Harris is now the man TCB-ing for this franchise, was the fact that Adam Aron — the face of the franchise for the last year — took an deep backseat at yesterday’s press gathering. That only gave credit to the rumors that former NBA GM John Nash started on SportsRadio 94 WIP that Aron will also assume a more limited role on the business and basketball side of the franchise.

After being introduced to both the media and the city of Philadelphia by owner Josh Harris earlier today, Sam Hinkie is now the President of Basketball Operations and General Manager of the 76ers.

Much has been said about Hinkie, whether it be on his tenure with the Rockets, his successful investment career, or his firm belief in analytics, but today he got to answer a few of Philadelphia’s questions for himself. His remarks should only strengthen the support that the organization has received for this hire.

Hinkie put organizational culture at the forefront of his comments throughout the press conference. From the get go, it was clear that Josh Harris and Co. were a big reason he accepted the position. He stated the ownership group is “committed to building a basketball operation that is data-driven, strategic, and relentlessly innovative.” Hinkie added that, before accepting the position, he spoke with both investors and competitors from within the basketball and investment realms to ensure that the franchise was headed in a direction he agreed with.

It’s a fitting charge for an organization who has struggled with its identity over the past 25 years. Sure there have been some fine moments over that time period. Charles Barkley’s rise to stardom, Allen Iverson’s arrival, Iverson’s 2000-01 MVP season where the unlikeliest of Sixers team made a run to the NBA finals, to Andre Iguodala’s arrival. But it wasn’t until October 18th, 2011 that the Sixers truly made their transition back to what it is the six letters read on their jerseys.

You see, this day was the first day of a new era in Sixers basketball. It was the first press conference for the teams new owners group (Joshua Harris, Adam Aron, David Blitzer, Jason Levien, Art Wrubel, Erick Thohir, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Michael G. Rubin) and it was being held at the “Cathedral of Basketball”, The Palestra. The two names out of this group that are truly responsible for all that’s happened over this ten months are Harris and Aron. Yesterday, coach Doug Collins had plenty of nice things to say about the two owners who have given this organization new life once again.

“He’s(Adam’s) reaching out to our fans. He’s got that twitter going. He’s selling more tickets. He’s finding ways to get even more fans to games by creating a great team and Josh, those two guys what they’ve meant to me has just been how special it is to be a part of this and really watch it grow.” said coach Collins. “Just seeing Josh’s face light up there today was a great thing because I remember Josh’s press conference up at the Palestra and how shy he was. You know I don’t think you realize how shy he was and kind of got up there and tried to feel it all out. “

“When he was standing up there today and you could feel how proud he was. He was saying you know ‘we are the Sixers’ and I was telling Adam the first time I met him the same thing, ‘we are the Sixers’. This is a proud franchise. We don’t need to bow our head down or hang our heads to anybody. We’re the Sixers.”

That is the question…that has been bantered around the Philadunkia.com offices this week regarding what approach the 76ers should take for the lockout shortened 2011-12 NBA season.

As you can imagine, there is no consensus here at our offices.

Now that the work stoppage has come to an “unofficial” end and pro hoops talk is starting to build some momentum around town, there also appears to be a clear divide among the Philadelphia faithful on what the Sixers game plan should be for this upcoming season.

On one side (in our offices and on the street) are those who say Josh Harris and Co. should give Rod Thorn the green light to do whatever it takes in order to assemble the best basketball team possible for this 66-game season and thus build on the success the team had in 2010-11. On the other side are those who say that this abbreviated season presents a perfect opportunity for the Sixers and their new owners to hit the “reset button” in order to get a fresh start and establish a brighter future for this franchise.

Sixer nation is a country divided.

So, two scribes here a Philadunkia were charged with defending each of the above positions — “Tank” or “Go for It” — in order to help you choose a side.

In the first of a two part series, Tom Sunnergren states his case for why he feels strongly that the 76ers should, “Go For It” during the 2011-12 season.

Good news usually comes in droves and it appears that is just the case for the Philadelphia 76ers of late.

First, the newly approved Sixers owner Josh Harris has promised to slash over 9,000 ticket prices in half in order to start tilting die-hard Philadelphia fans back to the Wells Fargo Center for basketball.

Secondly, the NBA owners and players met Wednesday for 16 consecutive hours with a federal mediator. That can only mean good things (Right?).

Finally, Sixers fans should still be basking in the glory of what Lou Williams did last Saturday evening, upstaging Kevin Durant and John Wall in leading the underdog Team Philly to victory. In particular it was Williams’ defense and not even the 53 point scoring outburst that had writers buzzing.

I’m not an upper echelon journalist – yet – to have met with Josh Harris or David Stern. But I did deliver on the Lou Williams end.

If somehow, someway the NBA returns in mid-November, I hope we get to see more than 23 minutes per game out of Williams.

We all know he’s been a streaky player in the past, but take one look and you can see that Louis has been busting his butt this off-season in hopes of a big year in 2011-12 season — if the season ever tips off.